Add a setting to disable favicons

[-bitMAN-]

Hi,

Given the now not-so-recent discovery that favicons can be used to track and de-anonymize users (see sources below), is it possible to add a toggle in the Settings menu to quickly disable favicons from loading?

I know that this exists as an experimental feature Configuration Editor (about:config), but I think it might be a good idea to move it / promote to the main Settings menu so its easier for more users to take this mitigation step, should they decide to do so.

Sources:

• https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/new-browser-tracking-hack-works-even-when-you...
• https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/02/browser-tracking-using-favicons.html
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7v5y7/browser-favicons-can-be-used-as-undeletable-supercookies-to-t...

Research paper by University of Illinois at Chicago that brought this mainstream attention: https://www.cs.uic.edu/~polakis/papers/solomos-ndss21.pdf

Screenshot 2022-05-03 113326.png

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[jscher2000]

I haven't noticed those preferences and I'm not sure what they are for.

Firefox tends to focus on protecting against cross-site tracking. I don't know whether this technique can be used for cross-site tracking.

[justinwwww]

Add settings
1. Search content in the search bar to jump to the new tab page.
2. Click the bookmark to jump to the new tab page.
thank you